Yahoo snaps up social news start-up Snip.it

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc said on Tuesday it has bought “social news” start-up Snip.it, the latest acquisition to be announced under Chief Executive Marissa Mayer.

Snip.it, a Pinterest-like service that allows news consumers to clip, organize and share articles, was founded in 2011 by Ramy Adeeb, previously an investor at Khosla Ventures.

In a 2012 interview, Adeeb, an Egyptian native, told Reuters he conceived his start-up idea during the recent Egyptian revolution, when he wanted to share articles about Middle East politics but found Twitter to be inadequate because most of his interactions with his Twitter followers were related only to tech in Silicon Valley.

Terms of the deal, which was first reported by tech blog AllThingsD, were not disclosed.

A former Google executive known for her interest in Silicon Valley start-ups, Mayer took the helm at Yahoo in July and has sought to revitalize the web property by snapping up fresh talent and young companies.

In a company blog post, Snip.it said it would shut down its current service but work on bringing “social news” to Yahoo, without providing details.